Register Star reporters look back at the 2013 news story that affected them most. Each wrote a follow-up blog post about the experience, and we're ru...

» Read more

X

About this seriesRegister Star reporters look back at the 2013 news story that affected them most. Each wrote a follow-up blog post about the experience, and we're running them in print through the end of the year. Read more from the reporters at rrstar.com/blogs.

I never met Jeremiah Fenix, but I heard his voice for the first time on a cold morning in November at Ridge Park in Rockford.

The 23-year-old Army veteran spent about three years in the military, including a year in Iraq. He died Dec. 10, 2012, from a heroin overdose, just nine months after returning home.

His mother, Jo Ann Burkholder, played a voice mail last month for me that Jeremy had left in 2011; she kept saving it on her phone so it wouldn't get deleted. I had just filmed her near the tree dedicated in Jeremy's honor at the park to pair with the story I was writing about him.

I always try to convey to the people I interview how appreciative I am of their time and their willingness to open up about a variety of topics. But I don't think I can thank Jo Ann and her family enough for the complex but fulfilling experience I had writing Jeremy's story.

The family let us attend and photograph the tree dedication during the summer. I shed some tears as songs by Simon & Garfunkel and fun. played while the tree was planted in dirt mixed with some of Jeremy's ashes.

The story stayed in my notebook for several months until early November; we decided to publish the story as Veterans Day approached. I spent several more hours re-interviewing Jo Ann; Jeremy's father, Steve; and his uncle, Jeff.

Then we decided to hold the story until the weekend after Veterans Day so I had enough time to talk to the Army and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs about Jeremy's military and health records.

Their comments were limited because of privacy laws, but Jo Ann and I discussed Jeremy's medical records, which referenced his alcohol and cannabis dependence, heroin and cocaine abuse, depression, mild traumatic brain injury and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

I learned that Jeremy was in the VA system, but he still died way too young. The family's goal and my goal in writing the story was to encourage veterans, especially younger veterans, to get the help they need and not feel so alone in the struggles they experience after returning home.

Jo Ann said a friend told her she put her heart out there by telling Jeremy's story. She spent part of Dec. 10, the one-year anniversary of Jeremy's death, at the tree in Ridge Park.